health care costs

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Ex-Cigna Bigwig: I Left Insurer After 'Crisis of Conscience'
Ex-Cigna Exec: What I Saw
'Shook Me to My Core'
OPINION
Dec 18, 2024 12:55 PM CST

Ex-Cigna Exec: What I Saw 'Shook Me to My Core'

In op-ed for NYT , Wendell Potter talks of time with health insurer, leaving due to 'crisis of conscience'

(Newser) - The gunning down of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has busted open an often-angry conversation about the state of health insurance in the United States, and now, an ex-exec with one of the country's biggest insurers is adding fuel to that fire. "What I saw made me quit,"...

Mike Johnson Causes a Stir With ObamaCare Comments
House Speaker on
Defense After
'No ObamaCare'
Remark
THE RUNDOWN
Oct 31, 2024 10:45 AM CDT

House Speaker on Defense After 'No ObamaCare' Remark

Mike Johnson's comments on ACA sets off Dems, though Johnson says reaction is off the mark

(Newser) - President Biden isn't the only big name in DC who's catching flak for remarks made in the final stretch of Election 2024. Appearing at a GOP campaign rally on Monday in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, House Speaker Mike Johnson broached the subject of 2010's Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare,...

Supreme Court Backs Tribes in Health Care Case

Ruling involves billing costs for programs federal government no longer runs

(Newser) - The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes Thursday in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities. The 5-4 decision means the government will cover millions in overhead costs that two tribes faced when they took over...

Former Surgeon General Gobsmacked by $5K ER Bill
Former Surgeon General
Stunned by $5K ER Bill
in case you missed it
Mar 3, 2024 4:15 PM CST

Former Surgeon General Stunned by $5K ER Bill

'The system is just broken,' says Jerome Adams

(Newser) - One might expect a cranky elderly relative to be stunned by the cost of a visit to the emergency room and flummoxed in navigating a recourse. One wouldn't expect the same of a relatively young and spry former surgeon general of the United States. Yet here we are . As...

Colorado Woman Wins Fight Against Crazy Hospital Bill

Colorado Supreme Court rules in favor of Lisa French

(Newser) - Lisa French may finally be able to wash her hands of the $228,000 hospital bill that's been hanging over her head since 2014, thanks to a Monday ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court. The Denver Post has the story of the bill, which is tied to two back...

Woman Charged $100 Per Hour for Sitting in ER Waiting Room
Hospital Bills Woman 
$700 for 7-Hour ER Wait
in case you missed it
Nov 6, 2021 2:35 PM CDT

Hospital Bills Woman $700 for 7-Hour ER Wait

Georgia woman Taylor Davis left without being seen

(Newser) - For $100 an hour, Georgia woman Taylor Davis could have visited an upscale spa. Instead, that was how much she was charged for sitting in an emergency room, waiting to be seen. Davis tells Fox 5 that she went to the ER at Emory Decatur Hospital in July with a...

Teens Rank 9 Biggest Threats to Their Generation
Teens Rank the
9 Biggest Threats
They Are Facing
in case you missed it
Aug 28, 2021 1:20 PM CDT

Teens Rank the 9 Biggest Threats They Are Facing

Climate change fails to make the top 5

(Newser) - Teenagers are perhaps less concerned with climate change than you might think, ranking it sixth in a list of the nine greatest threats to their generation, according to a new Washington Post -Ipsos poll. The national survey of 1,349 teens aged 14 to 18, conducted online in May and...

Doctor Wipes Out $650K His Patients Owe Him

Oncologist was always troubled by the strain caused by medical debt

(Newser) - Over nearly 30 years, thousands of patients were treated at the Arkansas Cancer Clinic. No one was turned away for financial reasons, but the bills patients were left with troubled Dr. Omar Atiq. "I've always been rather uncomfortable with sick patients not only having to worry about their...

Warren Releases Plan to Pay for 'Medicare for All'

She says 'not one penny' from middle class

(Newser) - Elizabeth Warren promised Friday to spend more than $20 trillion over the next decade to provide government-funded health care to every American without raising middle-class taxes—finally offering ideas about how to implement the massive "Medicare for All" program without taking a larger bite out of most Americans' salaries....

Health Care Costs Sent Americans Into $88B Debt in Last Year

Survey also finds one-quarter of Americans have held off on treatments due to cost

(Newser) - As the Trump administration continues to try to dismantle ObamaCare , with a GOP plan now not expected until after the 2020 election, some sobering statistics have emerged underscoring the necessity for affordable health care. Per the New York Times , a survey released Tuesday by Gallup and the West Health nonprofit...

What Does Your Hospital Charge? You'll Know as of Jan. 1

But the information may not be all that useful

(Newser) - It's one step forward. Maybe. In a move designed to increase transparency around our nation's health care costs, all hospitals in America will be required to post a master list, or chargemaster, of their prices online as of Jan. 1, per a new federal rule. But the Journal-News'...

Cost of This Drug in 2013: $138. Cost Now: $2,979

Horizon Pharma's Vimovo just saw latest price hike, but maker says most will pay less than $10

(Newser) - A painkiller that cost $138 a bottle less than five years ago now hovers at close to $3,000—the latest price hike to put the pharmaceutical industry in the spotlight. CNNMoney reports Horizon Pharma's latest increase on Vimovo, which has seen nearly a dozen such rate rises since...

3 Corporate Giants to Go After the 'Hungry Tapeworm'

Amazon, JPMorgan, Berkshire Hathaway will team up on health care

(Newser) - "The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," says Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, and he has teamed up with some equally huge names in an attempt to go after said tapeworm. Amazon.com, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday...

Doctors Told Them to Take Their Babies Home. They Can't

Inside the struggle to find and pay for at-home care for kids with extreme heath-care needs

(Newser) - Sheltaya Williams' daughter was admitted to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Aug. 22 and found to have clots that demanded surgery. The 6-week-old, who was born with heart defects, was left with a tracheostomy and on a ventilator. In March, doctors decided little Brooklyn Mallard could go...

Surgeon Offered to Pierce a Girl's Ears. Then Came the Bill

It was for $1,877, and it's emblematic of our health care spending mess

(Newser) - "Overuse" may seem like a benign word, and that's kind of the problem. In its latest piece on health care waste, ProPublica defines overuse as an umbrella term for a type of waste that includes things like unnecessary tests or surgeries. And it kicks things off with an...

ObamaCare Premiums Rise Sharply for 2nd Year in a Row

Most popular plans up by an average of 34%

(Newser) - Premiums for the most popular ObamaCare plans are going up an average of 34%, according to a study released Wednesday that confirms dire predictions about the impact of political turmoil on consumers. Window-shopping on HealthCare.gov went live Wednesday, so across the country consumers going online can see the consequences...

WH: We'll Make August Health Care Payment to Insurers

But uncertainty still lingers on long-term prospects for cost-sharing subsidies

(Newser) - The government will make this month's payments to insurers under the Obama-era health care law that President Trump still wants to repeal and replace, the AP reports. "The August payment will be made," a White House spokesman said Wednesday. Trump has repeatedly threatened to end the payments,...

CBO: Trump's Health Strategy Would Hike Costs 20% in 2018

If president stops ObamaCare subsidies, premiums will rise dramatically for 'silver' plan

(Newser) - People buying individual health-care policies would face higher premiums, and some may be left with no insurance options, if President Trump makes good on his threat to stop ObamaCare payments to insurers. That's the conclusion of a new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the AP reports. More...

Cancer From Tanning Beds Takes a Huge Financial Toll

Now considered a 'significant contributor' to cancer-related deaths

(Newser) - Tanning beds have long been associated with skin cancer, and now researchers are quantifying just what that costs the US financially. Reporting in the Journal of Cancer Policy, they calculate that in 2015, the direct medical care for skin cancers resulting from tanning bed exposure totals $343.1 million. What'...

Hospitals Toss $3B a Year in Cancer Drugs

Non-cancer drugs can be culprits, too

(Newser) - Some cancer drugs are barely wasted at all. Teva Pharmaceuticals' Treanda, used to treat leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, comes in four separate dosage packages, so only 1% of the drug is typically thrown away. But with 18 of the top 20 cancer drugs sold in only one or two...

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